Vancouver 2010 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Winter Games

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List Price: $39.99
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SEGA have done a great job with the graphics and gameplay with Vancouver 2010 on the PS3. Everything looks incredible in HD on the PS3. You can tell a lot of attention to detail has gone into the way it looks and feels/plays. The movement of the skiers down the slalom is very realistic, there's a good learning curve with the Parallel Snowboard Slalom which will keep you busy, and the sense of speed on the bobsleigh events is really well done. Unlike Beijing Olympics 2008, the mindless fast-tapping on controller buttons is kept to a minimum on Vancouver 2010. Online play is a lot of fun as this game seems to be very popular in Europe, so you'll get to play against some good (European) players.

That's the good. Now let's check out the bad...

The biggest disappointment with this game is the number of events that are included. The range of events is really quite poor. There is NO halfpipe snowboarding event for example meaning no opportunity to perform tricks or show off your snowboarding skills. Snowboarding is probably going to be one of the MOST WATCHED events, yet SEGA only decided to include the Snowboard Cross event and no HalfPipe. There's no figure skating event, no ice hockey content, no curling, no biathlon, and no cross-country skiing. Yes, I appreciate something like Ice Hockey is so complex that it would need a whole game/disc by itself, but not even some small presence such as a penalty shootout? While the game lists "14 events", most of these are very similar. The Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton are practically the same event (just a different vehicle/sled) and most of the skiing and snowboarding events are the same.

Vancouver 2010 is fun to play, especially online, but it quickly becomes monotonous playing the same events over and over. Pricing this game at $49.99 is ridiculous. They would sell more copies AND it would be more value for money if they sold it for half that price, $25. But when will we learn? We all know that any licensed Olympic game is fun short term, but quickly loses it's appeal. If you are curious about this game, I would say give it a miss. If you are a die-hard Olympics fan and want to immerse yourself in the Winter Olympics, then I would say ONLY get this game if you can rent it or buy a used copy. It's simply not worth it for $. All-in-all, it's a very disappointing game and totally overpriced. Save yourself $ and just watch the real Winter Olympics on TV.

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Surely with the current generation of video game consoles, game developers could include more of the Olympic events instead of just the ones revolved around downhill motion (skiing, snowboarding, bobsled, etc...) Where's the Curling, Hockey, Speed Skating, etc? I would have gladly traded off a bit of the extremely detailed graphics if it meant more events and ultimately a more complete game. If I remember correctly, even the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics game for the Nintendo 64 had Curling and that was 12 years ago and two console generations ago.

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Note to Sega or whoever makes a Winter Olympics game. Make a killer Curling event... and then worry about the other events.

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Believe it or not, I read the reviews on Amazon before I bought this game and yet I still bought it. With the SSX franchise apparently dead, I just wanted to play a winter sports game and thought this would suffice. Boy, was I wrong. The reviews here are spot-on. There is no redeeming value to this game whatsoever. You get absolutely no feeling that you are part of the Olympics other than a little flag that is next to your name. The events are not very good either. The skiing events and the snowboarding events use the same controls and they're terrible. The speed-skating is so hard to do that I played it once and never did it again. The whole game is awful. I have nothing positive to say about it. It feels like SEGA just rushed out a game in time for the Olympics to make a quick buck without putting much time or effort into it. My recommendation would be that you DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.

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They didn't have many events, the events they did have did not have did not have the right format. Snowboard cross for example was just a timed run, not a tournament style like the real Olympics. You have no idea how you're doing, there is no suspense as you see if your time is good enough.

In short I had a version of this game for the 1994 games and this one isn't improved by any extent 16 years later. Sega should be ashamed.